<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>When the Fires Burn Low by petofi</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29868183">When the Fires Burn Low</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/petofi/pseuds/petofi'>petofi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blow Jobs, Johnny Lawrence needs a hug, Johnny consents to letting strangers touch him, M/M, One Night Stands, Prompt Fill, Protective Daniel LaRusso, Semi-Public Sex, Touch-Starved, but freaks out a bit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:35:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29868183</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/petofi/pseuds/petofi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple years after high school ends, Johnny is lonely and touch-starved. He goes to a beach party where, deep into the night, people will start putting on a blindfold and undressing while other people touch them.</p><p>One night Johnny puts on a blindfold, not knowing that a certain karate rival is watching from the other side of the bonfire.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>103</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When the Fires Burn Low</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <a href="https://cobrakaikink.dreamwidth.org/702.html?thread=158142#cmt158142">The prompt:</a>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"A couple years after high school ends, Johnny is lonely and touch-starved. He goes to a beach party where, deep into the night, people will start putting on a blindfold and undressing while other people touch them.</p><p>Johnny decides to put on a blindfold because he hasn’t had anyone touch him in months, but being unable to see, naked, and getting pawed at by strangers turns out to be a pretty miserable experience.</p><p>Fortunately, somebody notices his discomfort and takes him away. Blindfold still on, Johnny goes along with the stranger up the beach somewhere private and lets the gentle stranger take care of him.</p><p>Right in the middle, Johnny realizes it’s no stranger at all and becomes humiliated that Daniel is seeing him like this. But Daniel is gentle and loving in his reassurance that he just wants to take care of Johnny."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There were scattered fires along the stretch of beach. It was a muggy summer night. The clouds hung low, so that the ocean was a dark shadow below the hazy sky. In the filtered moonlight Johnny couldn’t see the waves, but he could hear their soft sounds out in the darkness. </p><p>He’d heard of parties like this. You didn’t come to them to get wasted enough to end up doing weird shit. You came to these parties specifically for the weird shit. He only knew of this one because of the girls talking about it earlier in the day. </p><p>* </p><p>“It’s like a party at first,” the girl in the knit mesh cover-up told her friend as they sipped hard lemonade by the pool. “But as the fires start burning out people start touching each other.”</p><p>“What like sex?” the friend asked. </p><p>Johnny jammed his shovel into the ground, pushed it in further with his boot. He heard roots breaking as he levered the shovel, slowly working the bush out of the garden beside the pool patio. The girls ignored him. They must have been home from college for their summer break. Like all Encino brats, they didn’t even notice the hired help. </p><p>“No. It’s like, there were these blindfolds – or whatever people had brought with them, bandanas or sleep masks or whatever. Anyway, some people put them on and just let people touch them.”</p><p>“Touch them?”</p><p>“Yeah, they stripped down and everyone just started putting their hands all over, petting, caressing. These people could feel it, but couldn’t see anything.”</p><p>“Kinky,” said the friend. “Do you think they wanted to be looked at without having to look? It’s like they’ve turned themselves into objects to be touched and admired. Remember that chapter about the male gaze in art history? Did you try it?”</p><p>The girl snorted a laugh. “As if.”</p><p>“It’s weird what some people will do. I wonder if my psychology professor would–“</p><p>The bush toppled to the side and Johnny swiped the back of his hand across his face. He had a bandana tied across his forehead to keep the sweat out of his eyes, but that didn’t stop it from dripping down his cheeks and chin. This bush had really been a two man job, but the others were on the other side of the house laying a path of flagstones and digging a new flowerbed. Johnny, as usual, was left to himself. </p><p>* </p><p>The weird stuff didn’t happen until later. Johnny watched the figures around the fires. They talked and held drinks in their hands. They looked normal. Some people moved from one fire to another, but no one was yet drunk enough to stumble. Some of them looked college age, some looked older. They all seemed to be having a great time and Johnny would have loved to go over and join in, but he held back.</p><p>*</p><p>No one touched him anymore. He saw his friends, sure, but Bobby no longer patted him on the back and Dutch hadn’t leaned on his shoulder in forever. It was like growing up had created a distance between them. Or maybe it was because Johnny had finally told them about the thing he was scared to tell them. Did they not trust him anymore? He’d only experimented with that one guy. It didn’t mean Johnny was going to suddenly start getting off on his friends. </p><p>That one guy. They’d touched each other for two months before the school semester started and the guy went back to Harvard. They hadn’t made any promises to each other. They didn’t even really say goodbye. </p><p>Was that the last time Johnny had been touched? He hadn’t gone after any girls since then. He was still confused, still didn’t know what he wanted. Couldn’t figure out who would want him, loser that he had become. Kicked out of community college and making ends meet in low wage labor. Maybe he’d always been a loser.</p><p>*</p><p>He watched as the fires grew steadily smaller. The figures around them became more shadows than people. Things were quieting down. Johnny reached into his pocket and pulled out his headband. </p><p>*</p><p>As soon as he graduated high school, Sid kicked him out. Johnny had a college fund. He used the money to rent an apartment and enroll in community college. He’d been there barely a year when he was kicked out of there too, just because he’d set the chemistry lab on fire. Big deal. It had been an accident. And shouldn’t the school have insurance to cover that, anyway?</p><p>It turned out that fifteen college credits didn’t get you very far in life. Or maybe Johnny just wasn’t ambitious enough. He blew the rest of his money partying for the next two years until he had to get a job to make rent. Sid wasn’t giving handouts. </p><p>Until then Johnny hadn’t realized that he and his mom didn’t actually have money. They had whatever Sid gave them. They had weekly allowances, like they were ten years old or some shit, and that was their spending money. Karate lessons, clothes, cars, Johnny’s bike; all of that came out of Sid’s wallet and he could close it any time.</p><p>He’d closed that wallet on Johnny now. So Johnny was working shitty landscaping jobs with guys who didn’t like him on principle. They’d figured that out he came from money (or that he was used to it, at least). They made fun of him for it. Johnny remembered a time long ago when he’d been made fun of for being poor. </p><p>Apparently he just couldn’t fit in anywhere.</p><p>Rich or poor, it seemed he had nothing.</p><p>*</p><p>He walked past the first bonfire, kept going a little further. There was one a little separated from the others and Johnny headed there. In the dim glow of the small flames a young woman was tying a blindfold over her eyes. The group watched her as she tugged her shirt up and off. She unbuttoned her shorts and let them fall to the sand. As she unhooked her bra the first hand reached for her skin. A few people leaned forward to touch her legs. When she was fully undressed she tilted her head up to the sky, spread her arms out and sighed. </p><p>A man tied a bandana over his eyes and shucked off his pants with less grace. Then another woman began to undress. Then Johnny was in the group and wrapping the black headband across his eyes with shaking hands. He knotted it at the back, the action so familiar it almost ached in his chest. </p><p>He could hear people sighing and moaning around him. He stood still, suddenly scared of what he couldn’t see. </p><p>“Come on, babe,” a harsh voice whispered in his ear. Fingers pinched at the hem of his shirt and tugged. Johnny stripped out of his t-shirt and before he could drop it to the ground it was taken away from him. He slipped his sandals off and unbuttoned his jeans. Invisible hands helped slide them down his hips and free from his ankles. </p><p>Calloused fingers ran down his back. A sweaty palm skirted over his hip and ran flat across his abs. In his distraction his boxers were pulled down and removed and he felt a spike of panic at how vulnerable he had become. He didn’t know where his clothes were. He didn’t know who was touching him. </p><p>There were so many hands, hands running along every part of him and burning their shapes into his skin. His entire body burst, electric shock waves shooting out of each point of contact. Too much touch after too little. Too much touch all at once and it was all that Johnny knew in this sightless world. There were whispers and shouts and moans and he wondered how many other people were lost in the dark just as he was.</p><p>
  <em>Yeah, yeah, like that. Feels so good. Closer, honey, closer. Yeah. Don’t stop. Touch me. Touch me. </em>
</p><p>There were voices all around him, but no one was speaking to him. The hands swarmed him, their touch hot and impersonal. There was a hand idly stroking his cock. A finger lightly skimmed the crevice of his ass while five other fingers tapped on his toes. Hands on his legs, his arms, up his back and one petting lightly at his neck. He took a step back. This was a bad idea. He didn’t like this. It was too much of one thing and not enough of another and he didn’t want to be here anymore. </p><p>He stumbled as he tried to move away. His knee knocked into a shoulder. He heard protestations as he pushed at the hands engulfing him, trying to clear himself of their touch. He was afraid to lift the blindfold and see the spectral faces that must be attached to the nightmare hands that wandered over his body. He didn’t want them to see the wetness in his eyes.</p><p>But he needed to see if he was going to get away from here. He raised his arm, fingers just touching the headband, but stopped when someone’s hand wrapped around his wrist. The grasp was gentle. It wasn’t meant to hold him. It only asked him to reconsider. </p><p>“Shhh. You’ll be alright,” the whispered voice was calm. Johnny believed it. He let the person with the soothing voice and the gentle hand pull him. “Come with me.”</p><p>The rest of the hands fell off his skin until all he could feel was the soft hold around his wrist. He almost startled when another hand splayed across his lower back, but then he realized it was the same person. Someone was leading Johnny away from the group. </p><p>Being led to who knows where by a stranger seemed like a worse idea than letting a bunch of strangers paw at him, but Johnny was shaking a little and the stranger’s hands felt nice. He couldn’t tell how far they walked, but the moans and cries from the bonfires faded until there was only the sound of the waves. </p><p>“Sit,” whispered the stranger. The hands maneuvered Johnny onto a soft blanket. He sat, knees bent up and back hunched. He clenched at the sides of the blanket, feeling a few grits of sand dig into his palms. </p><p>“Shhhh. You’re okay.”</p><p>He couldn’t tell if the stranger was a man or a woman. All he knew were two hands and a whisper. The stranger was shorter than him, but Johnny was tall. The hands were slender, but felt strong. The whisper was low, but in the way that all whispers were. </p><p>Now that the hands and the voices and the too many touches were gone, Johnny could feel how hard his heart was pounding and how his muscles trembled. In the sudden stillness the stranger ran a hand through his hair.</p><p>“Do you want me to take care of you?”</p><p>Johnny hung his head and choked down a sob.</p><p>*</p><p>The beach was the space between one life and the next. That’s how it seemed to Daniel. </p><p>He had met Ali on the beach on a cool night, very different from this one. He’d met Johnny on the beach that night too. That night on the beach had changed his life. </p><p>Daniel wasn’t really a beach person. He wasn’t sure why he showed up to these parties. </p><p>*</p><p>The Little Trees thing hadn’t worked out. College savings gone. So Daniel got a job at a car dealership instead. He liked it. He felt really Jersey when he was slick talking a customer into splurging for the leather seats. </p><p>He stayed at Mr. Miyagi’s place because, well, the rent was cheap. He put his paychecks into better suits to better look the part of the salesman and into a couple classes at the community college. An associate’s degree in business would set him up nicely. Maybe someday he could run his own dealership. </p><p>*</p><p>Life was weird. Daniel had learned a lot about life in the past few years. He’d learned about death too. So far he’d managed to not die, despite a few close calls. It got him thinking about things, wondering about things, trying things. After Jessica there’d been Matt. And then Kimberly. And then Eddie. </p><p>Eddie had brought him to the beach one night. They had hung out around one of the bonfires. Cheap beer and a joint were passed around, but no one was intent on getting wasted. Eventually people stopped throwing new logs into the fires. The flames burned down until they were soft and glowing. </p><p>That night Daniel and Eddie touched a man with scars down his thighs and bandages on his wrists. Their touches were lost amongst the others, but Daniel was entranced as he watched tightly coiled muscles become loose and relaxed. When the fire had burned to embers the night came to a close. Bodies shifted through the darkness in a collective sigh. </p><p>Whatever this was, Daniel thought it was beautiful. He kept coming back even after Eddie was gone.</p><p>*</p><p>Some of the same people were always there. Some of them were always touched and some were always touching. Daniel was Touching. </p><p>When the bonfires were high he chatted with his neighbors. They never exchanged names or personal details. They talked philosophy, movies, music, books, current affairs, sports, or celebrity gossip. They never talked about themselves. </p><p>When the fires got low, they all became anonymous. The Touched lost themselves behind a mask, while the rest became bodies in the dark.</p><p>*</p><p>The first of the Touched had begun stripping when a new body appeared out of the shadows beyond the dimming firelight. Daniel noticed the hand first, the one clutching the black headband. Then Johnny Lawrence lifted the headband to his eyes and hid the world from his sight. </p><p>Daniel was briefly surprised, before he realized that he didn’t know anything about Johnny. They hadn’t seen each other since graduation. Who knew what Johnny had been up to in the meantime. </p><p>Johnny didn’t start stripping right away. This was obviously new to him. Daniel watched him fumble through undressing. His jeans were ripped up and bagged out at the knees, old and not like the designer clothes Johnny used to wear.</p><p>Usually the touching didn’t start until most of the clothes were off, but Johnny kept stopping. His head swiveled at every sound and he didn’t seem to know what to do with himself. The helpful people who took it upon themselves to pull off his clothes only caused him to startle and shrink away. </p><p>Once he was naked Johnny became quite popular. He was young and fit. His skin looked smooth and warm in the glow of the firelight. As people started touching him Daniel watched. He watched because Johnny was beautiful, but also because Johnny was uncomfortable. If Daniel could see his eyes he might even see that Johnny was scared.</p><p>This was supposed to be a positive experience. Getting touched should feel good. At the end of the night people were usually relaxed and happy. The little jagged pieces they had been carrying inside were smoothed over for the moment. </p><p>This wasn’t happening for Johnny. The more hands that touched him, the more upset he became. The people around him just touched him more in an attempt to soothe him. Finally he tried to break away, but he stumbled. Daniel got up then. If Johnny left now whatever pieces of him were cracked inside would only get worse. He pulled up the blanket he’d been sitting on and threw it over his shoulder. </p><p>Johnny was about to take off his blindfold when Daniel stopped him. His hand circled Johnny’s wrist, but did not close around it. </p><p>“Shhh. You’ll be alright,” Daniel leaned up to whisper in Johnny’s ear. Johnny, miraculously, listened to him. He seemed to settle a little as Daniel led them away. He needed quiet and stillness, not the groping hands of too many strangers. </p><p>When the bonfires were dim lights in the distance, Daniel set down his blanket and helped Johnny sit. Johnny remained tense, shaken by the experience and still riding the adrenaline. </p><p>“Shhh,” Daniel soothed. “You’re okay.”</p><p>Johnny’s ridiculously blond hair glinted in the emerging moonlight as the clouds began to dissipate. Daniel ran his hand through the find stands. He came to the beach to touch people, maybe soothe away some of those invisible bruises that the world had marked on their skin. He didn’t know why Johnny had come, but he could take a guess.</p><p>“Do you want me to take care of you?” he asked.</p><p>The noise Johnny made was almost a sob. </p><p>*</p><p>The nice thing about high school bullies is that they probably won’t kill you. Punch you in the face and push you over a cliff, sure. But a death match? That’s for the truly unhinged people. Johnny wasn’t unhinged like that. He was mean and mixed up and a real asshole, but he didn’t plot to kill people. The more people Daniel met the more he had been forced to lower his standards over the years. So from this perspective Johnny was an okay guy.</p><p>You didn’t leave an okay guy naked on the beach and crying into his knees.</p><p>* </p><p>The hand continued to stroke his hair as Johnny wrapped his arms around himself. Something warm moved closer to him. Fabric brushed against his bare shoulder as the stranger leaned in to press a kiss into his hair and then left their lips there. Johnny remembered his mom doing something like that when he was little. </p><p>“Will you touch me?” Johnny asked. His voice was strained, but he was glad to hear that there were no tears in it. He’d come here to be touched and maybe this stranger was what he needed. Just one pair of gentle hands. </p><p>“Yes,” came the reply. </p><p>One hand started down his back, fingers tapping down his spine. Then the palm pressed flat and began rubbing up and down. The other hand joined it. Johnny let out a deep breath. His shoulders relaxed incrementally as the hands pressed warmth and kindness into his skin. Both hands continued to move over his body, up over his shoulders, down his arms; rubbing, sometimes light scratching, sometimes a detour to cup his chin or brush back his hair. It was some crazy untrained massage, but it felt amazing to be touched, to be paid even this little bit of attention. </p><p>The hands separated. One went to the back of Johnny’s neck and squeezed, then let go. The fingers idly played with his hair, while the other hand moved down to his thigh. Johnny was still balled up, but at the stranger’s urging he pulled his legs away from his chest. He spread out more, dug his heels into the sand beyond the edge of the blanket. This opened up more skin to be touched. He let his head fall back and sighed. He was starting to feel good. </p><p>He was beginning to think that this must be a girl. The body beside him seemed kind of small. But more than that, he didn’t think a guy would touch another guy like this. Not without knowing. Johnny’s own friends had grown out of touching him. Surely, a guy wouldn’t be pressing kisses into his hair. It’s not like they knew that Johnny would probably be okay with it. It’s not like they knew it hadn’t been a girl touching Johnny for those two months before he stopped being touched altogether.</p><p>Maybe it was better for it to be a girl. It wasn’t good to show weakness to a girl, but at least she wouldn’t think she could kick his ass later because of it. Thinking about girls and feeling those hands brush over his chest sent heat pooling low in Johnny’s belly. </p><p>A fingernail scratched over his left nipple. Accidentally? He wasn’t sure. </p><p>“This okay?” the voice asked as a thumb swiped over Johnny’s right nipple. Johnny jolted. Not accidentally, then. Shit, it had been so long. It wasn’t going to take much.</p><p>“Yeah.” </p><p>The stranger moved their hand down Johnny’s stomach and stopped, fingers resting just above the line of pubic hair. There was a question in the air, but the stranger didn’t voice it.</p><p>“Yeah,” Johnny nodded vigorously. It had to be a girl. A girl would make sure to ask before taking this to the next level. Guys just weren’t that considerate. The hand that wrapped around his cock didn’t feel like a girl’s hand. The grip was too sure, too familiar. Maybe this girl gave a lot of hand jobs?</p><p>Johnny moaned. His heart rate was picking up again, but in a good way this time. His body tingled and he couldn’t help but buck up into the stranger’s hand to set a faster pace. </p><p>“Will you kiss me?” he asked in a moment of breathless abandon. The hand on his cock faltered. There was a sharp intake of breath. The world seemed to go quiet as Johnny waited. His cock was aching, but a panic was starting to bubble up in his chest. He’d wanted too much. Maybe he wasn’t worth a kiss.</p><p>Then slowly the body beside him moved. He felt breath ghosting across the side of his face. When he turned his head he met a pair of soft lips. They pressed together tentatively until they found a good angle. The stranger’s hand cupped the back of Johnny’s head and moved him into a better position. Johnny had very limited experience in kissing men, but this felt like a man. He pulled back a little. </p><p>The stranger moved forward to chase his lips. It was Johnny’s turn to gasp now as he felt the press of the stranger’s own hard on against his thigh. </p><p>“You’re a guy,” Johnny said. He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or not.</p><p>“Is that a problem?” </p><p>“I don’t know.” </p><p>“I won’t kiss you again,” the voice was still near, breathing heavily. The stranger’s touch was gone, but for the hand still gripping the base of Johnny’s cock. “but let me finish this for you.”</p><p>“You can kiss me,” Johnny’s voice wavered. He cleared his throat. “Can I... can I feel you?”</p><p>The stranger took Johnny’s hand and placed it on his crotch. Johnny felt the rough fabric of jeans and the straining bulge underneath. He explored lightly with his fingers before feeling confident enough to start stroking the stranger through his pants. </p><p>“Hmmpf,” it was a low moan, obviously a guy’s voice now. The guy shifted and Johnny could feel how his thighs tensed right before he rose up. For a moment there were no hands anywhere on Johnny’s skin. He heard a noise come out of his throat, low and questioning, slightly fearful as he had no idea what the guy was going to do.  </p><p>“I’m just moving to a better angle,” the guy said. His hands touched Johnny’s knees and spread them wider. Johnny felt the movement of the guy between his legs, the smooth skin of his arms brushed against Johnny’s inner thighs. One hand settled at his hip while the other took Johnny’s wrist. Johnny’s hand was brought up to rest on the guy’s shoulder. His fingers curled into the soft material of a t-shirt. He realized that just as no one had touched him, neither had he touched anyone else. For the first time in almost a year he felt the warmth of another human being beneath his palm. </p><p>Overwhelmed by sudden greed, Johnny raised his other hand to find the guy’s other shoulder. He moved his hands down past the sleeves to feel slender, strong arms. For a minute the guy let Johnny’s desperate hands roam. Chest, back, neck, thighs and down knees below the ragged hem of cut off shorts. Back up into the hair, where Johnny buried his fingers and pulled the guy into another kiss. He let the other guy coordinate since Johnny was too far gone to do much more than pant into his mouth. He untangled one hand from the guy’s hair and skimmed downward, found the button on the guy’s shorts and opened them up. The guy’s cock rose out of its confinement and Johnny scrabbled to further free it from his underwear. When his hand finally found skin the guy moaned deeply into Johnny’s mouth.</p><p>Johnny was riding high, like he was drunk or stoned. He was sure the guy was setting off sparks everywhere their skin met. There was a haze of pure pleasure in his brain that made it hard to think beyond each single moment. He stroked upward on the guy’s cock.</p><p>“Come on me,” he whispered; frantic, wild, desperate for any and every type of touch. “I want to feel it. Feel you on me.”</p><p>“Oh, fuck yeah. Johnny.”</p><p>The guy realized his mistake one moment too late. He went still as Johnny’s mind was encompassed in static. The former euphoria was ripped away and harsh reality hit him like a sucker punch. He wasn’t sure if the roaring in his ears was the sound of waves or of his pounding pulse.</p><p>This guy knew his name. Knew him. In one heart dropping moment Johnny realized who this was. Shame burned through him, like there was lava in his veins. He could feel the splotchy red blush of humiliation rise up on his cheeks and spread down his chest. He suddenly felt unattractive and stupid and vulnerable. He tried to bring his legs together, aware, as he hadn’t been before, of being naked and spread out, like he was flaunting himself to a stranger. No, not to a stranger, to LaRusso. </p><p>But LaRusso was between his legs and he couldn’t close them. He covered his crotch with his hands despite the fact that LaRusso had already seen everything, had already touched it. He brought a foot up and rammed it into LaRusso’s stomach, pushing him back. </p><p>“Johnny. Johnny, wait! It’s okay. You’re okay.”</p><p>*</p><p>He could have just touched Johnny like he had touched all those other people. Gentle and nice, but not at all sexual. The sexual aspect of it was the one uncomfortable thing for Daniel. It seemed like too much intimacy without enough consent. The experienced Touched wanted to be brought off, but the ones like Johnny, the newbies who didn’t know what they were getting into, for them it might be unwelcome or too much. </p><p>But Johnny. Oh, Johnny. With his perfect body and his perfect hair and sitting naked in the moonlight on the beach. He was a wet dream come to life. He was an okay guy and Daniel wouldn’t mind going further with him. </p><p>Only if Johnny said yes.</p><p>Johnny did say yes. </p><p>But it turned out that consenting to let an invisible stranger touch your cock and consenting to let your high school karate rival touch your cock were two vastly different things. Daniel had been caught up in the moment. He should never have breathed Johnny’s name, but wouldn’t it be better this way? For Johnny to know it was Daniel? It would help keep things even between them. It would mean that Daniel wasn’t taking advantage.</p><p>Johnny’s foot pushed hard into his stomach. Daniel was thrown off balance and forced back, his knees scraped through the gritty sand as he tried to scramble away. </p><p>“Johnny. Johnny, wait! It’s okay. You’re okay.”</p><p>Johnny was obviously even more upset now than he had been earlier. He was trying to curl up, to hide. His movements were jerky, but with humiliation rather than anger. He hadn’t yet taken the blindfold off. </p><p>“Fuck off, LaRusso!” He managed to get his legs together. He arranged his legs into an awkward position that covered as much of his torso as possible, shoulders hunched in embarrassment. His breathing was harsh and stuttered.</p><p>“Not until I know you’re going to be okay,” Daniel tried to sound calm rather than anxious. He’d screwed this up, but he couldn’t leave Johnny in a time when he was looking more vulnerable than Daniel had ever seen. </p><p>“I’m fine!” Johnny’s voice shook despite the harsh tone. He wasn’t fine. He knew it. Daniel knew it. </p><p>“You wouldn’t have come here if you were fine,” Daniel said. </p><p>Johnny’s nose wrinkled up and his mouth pursed. It was the look some people got before they started crying. He shook his head, put a hand to rub at his face as if he could rub the expression away. His fingers touched the headband that he’d wrapped over his eyes. He pushed it up to his forehead where it caught his hair and pushed it up into a disordered mess. The light from the moon glinted off Johnny’s eyes. The blue was lost in the darkness of night, but his eyes glittered with pinpoints of light.</p><p>“Don’t – don’t judge me,” Johnny said. It was one of the most honest and open things Daniel had ever heard him say. </p><p>“I’m not.” Daniel watched as Johnny rearranged his awkward mess of limbs. “I just want to take care of you.”</p><p>“Yeah, right,” Johnny ground out through his clenched jaw. “You like seeing me like this? You think I’m weak? I can still kick your ass, LaRusso. I’m not a loser.”</p><p>“I know,” Daniel soothed. He held up his hands placatingly. “I know you’re not weak. I only like seeing you like this because you’re beautiful. Just let me. Let me make you feel good.”</p><p>Johnny’s eyes were bright. They disappeared when he scrunched them closed, and returned a few seconds later. Daniel held his gaze. Finally, Johnny nodded once. </p><p>He pulled the headband back down over his eyes.</p><p>*</p><p>He didn’t know what he was doing. Back in the darkness of the blindfold is was both safer and more dangerous. He needed it, though. It blocked out LaRusso’s face. Johnny waited in tense anticipation for his touch, heart pounding a mile a minute. </p><p>LaRusso gently encouraged Johnny to spread his legs again and returned to his position between his thighs. Johnny’s cock had gone down. He waited for LaRusso to touch it and work it back up, but instead LaRusso began his crazy massage again. The hands felt different now that he knew to whom they belonged. They felt more intimate. He let himself get lost in the touches and slowly relaxed.</p><p>“Can I still kiss you?” LaRusso whispered. Johnny leaned forward. LaRusso’s lips met his. It was less frantic this time. Johnny wasn’t that far gone yet, despite LaRusso’s efforts. When they parted LaRusso sighed. “Thank you.”</p><p>His hands worked closer and closer to Johnny’s cock. He seemed to be an expert at teasing touches. Johnny shivered and moaned. Fingers danced down his hips and lingered in the creases where his things met his pelvis. </p><p>“Don’t stop,” Johnny startled himself with his own breathy moan. His skin tingled from all the places LaRusso had touched. The panic and self-loathing had disappeared, replaced by arousal. He tried not to squirm as he waited for one of those hands to make a move. </p><p>It wasn’t a hand that finally came down, but a soft puff of breath. Soft lips kissed his half-hard cock and it jumped back to full attention. The tip was kissed and then the side and then a tongue licked up the vein. </p><p>“Oh, shit!” Johnny clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle his shout as LaRusso’s mouth closed over him. It was hot and wet and LaRusso’s tongue was incredible. The guy knew what he was doing. Johnny made broken noises into his palm. It had been so, so long since another person had tried to make him feel like this. LaRusso kept up is tongue action as he started to move his hands. One moved back to Johnny’s hip and pushed down to discourage movement. The other wandered low, past Johnny’s cock and to his balls. The fingers cupped and fondled as LaRusso shifted on his knees and went for a deeper angle. Johnny had to tangle his free hand into his own hair to stop himself from pushing LaRusso’s head all the way down. His muffled noises were constant now and he almost suffocated himself trying to keep them contained. When he felt those fingers tickle along the crease of his ass and tap once against that ring of muscle hidden between, he keened. No one had ever touched him there and he wasn’t sure he liked it, but it was hot all the same and it was so, so intimate that Johnny came without warning. </p><p>The mouth pulled off. He heard choking noises beyond the rush of euphoria, but there was a hand stroking him through it. He lay back on the soft blanket, hands flopped beside his head, shaking and blissed out. He felt LaRusso moving above him. He’d lend the guy a hand. Really, he would. In just a moment after he caught his breath.</p><p>Something hot and wet splashed over his stomach and he almost jumped off the blanket. He sat up, now noticing the warmth on either side of his waist. LaRusso was knelt over him. LaRusso was coming on him. Waves crashed into Johnny’s head. His cock twitched valiantly, but it was too soon for another round. He reached out, grasping whatever bits of LaRusso he could find in the dark and pulled the man close. Johnny’s lips found chin and made their way up LaRusso’s face. He pressed his open mouth to LaRusso’s and couldn’t really do much more. Hot, wet stripes burned into him. One of LaRusso’s hands palmed his stomach to smear it into his skin. An invisible touch that he would carry home with him.</p><p>When LaRusso was done Johnny felt him collapse back onto the sand, legs still bracketing Johnny’s waist. They sat in mirrored positions as they bent their heads together and tried to catch their breath. Johnny ran his hands over LaRusso, t-shirt damp at the back from exertion, shorts loose and low on his hips, hair still in place because Johnny had restrained from tugging it. He put his hands through it now to mess it all up. </p><p>LaRusso’s chuckle was small and breathless beside his ear. His hands came up to cup Johnny’s face, thumbs stroking along his cheekbones. </p><p>“Are you okay?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Did you get what you needed?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>* </p><p>Daniel had never seen this relaxed side of Johnny before. Those broken pieces that he’d arrived with were smoothed over, like the sharp edges of glass gentled over time by the waves. </p><p>“I’m not going anywhere,” Daniel assured as he stood. He made sure his toes touched Johnny’s inner thigh as he tucked himself back into his shorts and brushed the sand off his sweaty knees. He moved to sit at Johnny’s side, close so that their legs were touching. He put his hand on Johnny’s back and scratched idly. </p><p>“Are you taking this off?” he asked as he tugged on the loose ends of the headband. </p><p>“Not yet.” Johnny swept his hand outward, reaching for Daniel without seeing him. His hand landed on Daniel’s knee; the bad one. He ran his fingers down and held onto Daniel’s shin. He pulled his knees up again, rested his other arm on them and then put his head down, face turned toward Daniel. He seemed very content so Daniel just sat with him and ran fingers up and down his back.</p><p>“I’ve made out with a guy before,” Johnny said. “We used to do hand jobs. He went back to Harvard.”</p><p>Daniel hummed to show he was listening, but Johnny didn’t say anything more. He decided to reciprocate. “I’ve had a couple boyfriends. Obviously we did more than hand jobs.”</p><p>“You’re really good at sucking dick,” Johnny said in complete seriousness. </p><p>Daniel decided to take that as a compliment.</p><p>“Just have to practice the swallowing,” Johnny continued. “Work on that follow through.”</p><p>Maybe not so much of a compliment. “I’ll keep that in mind.”</p><p>The bonfires down the beach had disappeared. Daniel couldn’t even make out the glow of embers. The others would be packing up about now; sated, anonymous shadows moving through the early morning darkness. They’d all go back to their day lives and wait for the grape vine to send out whispers of the next party. </p><p>A few beams of light arced across the sand. Some people brought flashlights to help them find their way off the beach. Daniel had a small flashlight in his own pocket. A few of the beams seemed to be coming closer. The light bounced and swung from one side to the other, like the person holding the flashlight was stumbling. Faint voices and laughter reached Daniel’s ear. He looked at Johnny, but Johnny was still sitting with his head resting on his arm and apparently not paying any attention. </p><p>“Johnny,” Daniel whispered, “take the headband off.”</p><p>“Huh? What?”</p><p>“There’s some guys coming down the beach. Take the headband off and wrap this around you.”</p><p>Daniel pulled the edges of the blanket up and tucked them around Johnny’s shoulders and over his lap. Johnny pulled the headband off and looked at him in confusion. He did pull the blanket closed around him, though.</p><p>“Are you protecting my modesty, LaRusso?” The tone wasn’t as derisive as Daniel might have expected.</p><p>“Some people come to gawk. These sound like that type.” Daniel leaned back on his hands, affected an uncaring pose. The beams of light had almost made it to their spot. One of them arced over Daniel’s legs.</p><p>“Oh, shit!” said a voice. The beam of light traveled up so that Daniel and Johnny were illuminated. They both squinted in the sudden brightness and tried to see the figure behind the flashlight. </p><p>“Oh man, you scared me,” the voice laughed. Another laugh chimed in somewhere to the side. “Did you see the freaky party over there? Bunch of crazies getting naked and petted. So messed up.”</p><p>“Yeah, I heard something like that was happening,” Daniel replied. “Put the beam down, man. You’re blinding us.”</p><p>The flashlight lowered. Daniel could make out two guys behind it, but couldn’t get a good look at them. </p><p>“What are you guys doing out here?” the second voice asked. “You’re not, like, a pair of fucking gays are you? Getting dirty on the beach.” </p><p>The other one guffawed and Daniel’s shoulders tensed. “Nah. We’re just sobering up enough to drive home.”</p><p>“Cool. You got any booze left?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“What about your friend. He’s pretty quiet. All wrapped up in that blanket, he’s not one of those naked freaks is he?”</p><p>“Fuck off, man!” Johnny growled. “I took a swim. It’s cold.”</p><p>“So, no booze?”</p><p>“No!”</p><p>“Alright. Jeez. Ask a guy a question....” The two party crashers moved on, the beam of the flashlight marking their path as they wove down the beach. </p><p>“Assholes,” Daniel muttered when they were out of earshot. </p><p>Johnny shifted. The relaxed mood had been disrupted. He was uncomfortable again. Daniel wondered if touch would be okay now, or if the abrupt end to their night had created distance between them.</p><p>“Better get my clothes,” Johnny said quietly. He stood, blanket still wrapped around him. Daniel jumped up and wiped the sand off the seat of his shorts.</p><p>“Did you bring an extra set in your car?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Some people do, just in case. But let’s see if we can find your stuff.” He took the flashlight out of his pocket and led the way back to the burnt out bonfire. There a few stragglers left, one or two laying in the sand as if they were planning to spend the night. A little group sat to the side talking quietly. Daniel swept his flashlight beam around the sand surrounding the bonfire. There were bottles scattered around. They found Johnny’s t-shirt and one sandal.  </p><p>“I need my pants,” Johnny said. He tightened the blanket around him, looking less and less relaxed. “My keys.” </p><p>“We’re looking,” Daniel assured him. He put his arm around Johnny’s back, hoping to rub out some of that tension. “We’ll find them.”</p><p>Daniel kept up his reassurances for another fifteen minutes until they found Johnny’s jeans half buried in the sand. Johnny dropped the blanket and pulled them on. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief.</p><p>“Said I’d take care of you,” Daniel smirked. </p><p>“Shut up, LaRusso,” Johnny said without heat. He looked no less beautiful standing in a t-shirt and ripped up jeans under the moonlight. Daniel bit his lip. That hair. It was like a golden halo glowing around Johnny’s head. How was this man so touch-starved? Daniel would have thought people would be falling over themselves to get their hands on him. Johnny tossed his keys up and caught them. He gave Daniel a side glance and shifted his feet in the sand.</p><p>Daniel put his hands in his pockets. The party was over. Now they all woke up and shook the dreams out of their heads until next time. </p><p>They were standing a few feet apart now and Daniel really wanted to close the distance one last time. He took his hands out of his pockets, half raised them and let them hover in the space between decision and uncertainty. “Can I... can I hug you?”</p><p>Johnny stared at him for a long moment and then snorted in amusement. He tilted his head, smiling and flirty. His voice was soft when he said, “You had my dick down your throat. You think a hug is too much?”</p><p>“Just didn’t want to overstep,” Daniel replied as he took the invitation to move in close. He wrapped his arms around Johnny, held him tightly for a moment. Johnny relaxed into it, seemingly content, but not reciprocating. Daniel lingered as he pulled back, letting his hand run down Johnny’s arm before they separated.</p><p>“I come to these a lot,” Daniel said in sudden desperation. “Maybe I’ll see you again?”</p><p>Johnny gave a half shrug and looked at the ground. “Thanks for, you know....”</p><p>“Oh, yeah... um... no problem. You looked like you needed a hug.” </p><p>Johnny smiled again. “Shut up, LaRusso.” He leaned down to give Daniel’s forehead a quick kiss, then he was striding up the beach and merging into the darkness. Daniel stared after him even as he was lost to sight.</p><p>*</p><p>Daniel didn’t see him again until thirty years later; when Johnny was standing in the dealership looking like he needed a hug.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>